Darrell Waltrip

Darrell Lee Waltrip is a former three-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion as well as the 1989 Daytona 500 winner. At the moment Waltrip is working at Fox Broadcasting Company as a television race commentator. His racing days started off in Kentucky, but with his growing success it led him to move to Nashville, Tennessee. There he raced at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds on the Nashville Speedway USA, where he won two track championships. Darrell Waltrip did a lot to help promote races by appearing on the local television program, something many other competitors refused to do.

In 1972 Waltrip started in the Cup level driving an old Mercury Cyclone, which was his primary car during the first few seasons. At the Cup level races Darrell drove aggressively and was known for his outspoken style, which earned him the nickname “Jaws” as given by his rival Cale Yarborough. The year 1980 was the height of Waltrip’s NASCAR success but at the same time it was where he had to endure criticism from his fans. Eventually he used his wit and silliness to win their hearts over.

Darrell Waltrip had much success with Junior Johnson, a car owner, winning three national championships. However, there was concern with Waltrips involvement with Budweiser as it created this image of alcohol, fast cars, and success. With that Darrell Waltrip made a move to Hendrick motors. In 1989 Waltrip won the Daytona 500 for the first time in his entire race career. That same year a lot of pressure was placed on Darrell to win one more race, that being the Heinz Southern 500 in Darlington. If he did so, he would earn himself one million dollar bonus for having won four majors in one season.

However he did not cope well with the pressure as he also had the added strain of winning the Career Grand Slam. This led to him hitting the wall early on in the race, putting him out of the race as a contender. The year 1990 also proved unsuccessful. While practicing for the Pepsi 400, Waltrip spun out in another car’s oil and suffered a broken leg, two broken arms and a concussion.

Darrell retired from racing in 2000 and upon retirement signed up with Fox as an analyst on the network’s NASCAR telecasts.